


Fire Burns Everything it Touches

by Pinecone06



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:22:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25310794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pinecone06/pseuds/Pinecone06
Summary: Hydra always has secrets, that's what it lived and thrived off of. So is it really so shocking that they had other experiments, in other countries, with other participants. And would it really be such a shock if one of them had lived. After AoU, the Avengers have a few more Hydra bases to investigate. One experiment is ready to be found.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Reader
Kudos: 13





	1. 1

BANG

BANG

BANG

That was the noise I woke up to. The sound of explosions, gunfire and screaming travelled from the snow clad forest outside the experimentation facility to my spacious, but sparse 'room'.

Of course when I say room, I mean prison cell, this once white room now covered in ash and singe now only contained a single chair in the centre of the floor on which I sat.

The cell resembled a hospital ward in some way, the cold sterility of it, and the large wall I was forced to face which was only made of glass. The design of this cell was to make the occupant feel watched, as if they were placed under a microscope, or perhaps set up in a circus tent for the general public to gawk and point at.

And that's exactly how I had felt for the last God knows how long, like an experiment, a freak, a monster. Not only the atmosphere of the cell, but the people here, they were the main reason I felt like such an abomination. When you constantly have people calling you evil, you begin to believe them, or maybe you just run out of energy to argue with them.

I slowly lifted my head from where it lay against the back of the cold metal chair, snapping my head from side to side, clicking and cracking the tired bones that had set into an uncomfortable position from sleeping.

I shook by hair from my face and began to try and stand, for a moment completely forgetting the condition I was in. I only got an inch or two away from the chair before my hand and feet were lurched back and quickly stopped as they caught on the large shackles imprisoning them.

I quickly looked down and remembered why I had not moved from that chair the whole time I have been imprisoned here.

The solid metal cuffs covered the entirety of my hands, and travelled up my arms until my elbow, separate cuffs encased my feet and my shins until just below my knee. The solid chains connected in multiple places to cuffs ran into the ground, cemented deep down into the foundations of the building, so if by some miracle I broke one chain, there would be multiple backups to stop my attempts at escaping.

From the outside the cuffs looked like massive mittens, just large chunks of metal attached to my limbs, however on the inside it was a different story. The shackles had been specially made to my exact measurements, not allowing for any movement inside the restraints.

They knew that if I could get any friction inside the metal, they were all going to die.

Even with all of these precautions, the metal itself wasn't the problem, no, the real problem was my inability to move.

I have spent hour upon hours of the countless days I had spent here studying the metal, looking for any weak spots in the welding, as it was practically fused to my skin. But alas, they were constructed perfectly, not a single flaw I could exploit to my advantage. Damn.

The chains allowed for little movement, but it did allow me to sit quite comfortably in the metal seat, my hands placed on the cold armrests and my legs slightly spread to shoulder width apart.

I gave a deep sigh of resentment, feeling the air instantly blow back against my mouth and nose. And then I remembered another part of my multiple restraints.

The mask, again made from an uncomfortable metal, covered the lower half of my face reaching up the bridge of my nose and down to rest around the middle of my throat. The metal reached round the sides of my face to hook around the ears, securing itself with a collection of crisscrossing leather straps at the back of my skull.

There were tiny holes cut into the metal so I could get just enough oxygen not to pass out, but I know if I tried to talk, I would instantly become lightheaded and most likely fall unconscious.

I didn't want that to happen. Not if I could prevent it. When I am unconscious, I don't know what they're doing, the experimenters and scientists that is. I would rather be fully alert.

I had been wearing these restraints for so long that they had almost become part of me, I could barely feel them now. That's why I often forgot about their existence until I tried to move, which made the reality of my situation well known, and made me want to crawl into a ball and hide from the monsters before my eyes.

It's gotten to the point that I have forgotten what my hands look like under the metal, what I look like beyond the disgusting and straggly hair.

It's said that if a person spends too long without looking in a mirror, the human brain will start to exaggerate its memories and create new ones. The human brain truly is an awful thing. It will remember the bad memories before the good, it can make you hear things, see things, and even feel things that aren't actually there.

It's gotten to the point that I can't even remember what my eye colour is, or how tall I am, or what my name is.

But I know that I haven't changed physically since the day I was put in this damnable cell, I never change. And I never will. Never.

I looked down at my shackles again and noticed that my clothes had been changed when they knocked me unconscious. It was a regular routine, they would come in with a needle and try to subdue me, and when they eventually manage to drug me, they would wash me, take samples from me, and change anything that needed changing.

I hated needles; I always have since I was a little girl all those years ago. So I always put up a fight, even though I know that I won't win and that every effort I take to escape will come to naught. But I won't stop fighting, I never will, even just to prove them wrong.

I was in a regular hospital gown, all of the clothing they had put me in over the years has been far too large and baggy for me, and this gown was no exception.

The bottom of the dingy gown reached to just above my knees due to the fact I was sitting down, and the back of the dress was tied into knots which pressed uncomfortably into my spine if I leaned to far back into the metal chair.

I don't know what sort of drugs they were using that could keep every part of me unconscious, but they must have had it specially manufactured for me and my 'special' condition. I remember when I first came here, or rather when I was forced here, that when they tried to drug me it never worked.

The other part of me never fell unconscious, and I was always grateful for that, because he could tell what had happened when I was asleep, and he would provide me with company.

Most would say I'm mad for talking to a voice inside my head, but they don't understand. I didn't understand really, but now I can't imagine a life without him.

I kept my eyes trained on the large glass wall, watching as soldiers with guns passed, all heading East, to the source of the commotion. Not soon after did I hear the sound of gunfire and screaming, I couldn't bring myself to grieve for their impending death, I couldn't see them as people, and to be honest it wasn't even an option as most of them were just loaded guns with empty skulls.

Oh yes, their death was guaranteed, whether it came from the new visitors or by my own hand, they would certainly die.

As I continued to watch the window, a body dressed in Hydra black was thrown through the air in the opposite direction the troops had been heading, practically flying across my view of the corridor.

As the flailing body left my sight, I heard a sucking crunch from my left, most likely the soldier's spine and skull colliding with the nearest wall.

Not soon after, a man walked across the hall, heading in the direction of the Hydra soldier’s corpse. The most eye catching thing about him was the fact he wore a strange costume, it almost looked like a soldier's uniform if not for the odd colour scheme.

Red, white, and blue.

I looked at his hands, expecting to find some sort if weapon, however instead of a gun or knife he held a large circular shield, again with the red, white and blue colour scheme and with a large five pointed star in the centre.

My interest in this new mystery man instantly peaked as I saw what his shield was made from. Vibranium. One of the rarest metals in the world, I would recognise it instantly, for it was a metal I had a lot of familiarity with. It held a great personal significance to me.

As I continued to watch the soldier, I got the sense that I knew him, or at least knew of him, like the feeling you get when you see a complete stranger and you know you have seen them somewhere before.

The oddly dressed stranger continued to walk along the corridor looking left and right, until he stopped dead in his tracks and looked at me. I stared back through my mated hair, analysing him as he gazed at me with a look of thinly veiled shock.

Our little staring contest continued until he finally conceded and began to walk up slowly and cautiously to the glass wall separating us and bring his hand up to rest at his ear.

'What is he doing?' I thought as he began to turn his head slightly and speak to himself whilst never breaking eye contact, I almost thought he was talking to me until I heard him speak the name 'Tony.'

'Was there someone else here? Maybe around the corner so I couldn't see him?' I tilted my head slightly to not draw attention to myself, as I moved my hair to the side of my face so I could see clearly.

The man outside took his hand away from his ear and walked closer to the glass, keeping his eyes focused on mine, staring me down. As he reached the glass, I shifted suddenly in my seat making him take a quick step back and raise his shield slightly, but he was persistent.

Good.

He might be useful to me.

I began to quickly flick my eyes from the man, to a panel in the glass, hoping that he would get the message and go over to it. The panel was set at about chest level to the far right of the glass, well my right, his left, and it looked different than the rest of the wall, slightly less clear.

I hope that this guy wasn't a complete idiot and he figured out what I was trying to tell him. If he didn’t, I get it then I would have to find someone else to get me out, maybe the Tony person he was talking to with his ear.

If he pressed the panel, the glass wall will become flooded with pictures and videos from my files and would be covered with information about me and what Hydra had been doing to me over the years. But the real reason I wanted the soldier to press the panel, is that once the panel is pressed by an unregistered handprint, the facility will go into meltdown, and hopefully my shackles will come off.

I had heard some of the scientist saying that all of my shackles were connected to the main frame security system of the facility, so I have the idea that in case of emergencies, the shackles will release me and I can escape. I imagine that they wouldn't program to door to open to, but once the cuffs are off, escaping will be easy.

He slowly and cautiously approached the section of the glass with the panel, but he still wasn't looking at it, instead looking at me and observing me, like I was a bloody experiment at a freak show to ogle at.

I suppose in a way that's sort of true.

'For fuck sake hit the God damn panel!' I screamed in my head, 'he can't be that stupid, I'm looking right at it!' I would usually hear some response to my inner turmoil, but due the drugs they constantly have me on, there was no response. This silence made me a lot sadder and depressed then it should have, but it also strengthened my resolve to get out of this hell.

And slowly, as if by some miracle he began to lift his hand, to slowly rest it against the glass. He was so close-

"Hey Cap, what ya doin'?!"

'FUCK' the man outside, apparently called 'Cap' lowered his hand and turned to face the corridor. He was a centimetre away! Honestly just a second longer and he would have hit the damn panel. Someone up there is taunting me with the promise of freedom, and I don't like it.

"Stark where have you been? I've found another experiment of Hydras." The Cap said gesturing his hand to encompass my general area.

"Yeah I can see that Captain Obvious" said the man, well I think it's a man at least... He was a walking sheet of metal, completely encased in it. I wonder if he was actually made of metal, or if it was some sort of armour.

"Yes well maybe we should radio the twins? Maybe they have a bit more info on who she is."

"What like they heard about her when they were being zapped, poked and prodded by Strucker?" Replied the metal man as he walked forward towards the glass.

I realised that they thought I couldn't hear them, so I didn't let on that I could, keeping my face straight and neutral, even at the mention of Baron Strucker. Just hearing that monsters name made my skin crawl and my face twist into a snarl of rage.

I've made it my personal mission to end that creature’s pitiful life by my hands, slowly, painfully, in every way he that he has tortured me in the past. A small grin began to grow on my face, but I quickly rearranged my face into a blank canvas, not giving away my inner thoughts.

The metal man suddenly started to shift and ripple, like water after a pebble has been thrown into it, until the centre opened to reveal a normal human man stepping out of it. 'Well I guess it's a suit then, how strange. I wonder how it works. Maybe I've been in here longer than I thought of technology has progressed so much...'

As my mind began to wonder the newly emerged man, who I presume is the 'Tony' the Cap was talking to with his ear, made his way over to the glass wall and lightly presses his palm against it.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y run a scan of the room as its occupant will ya? I think we should know what we're dealing with before we make any decisions, don't you Captain?" Said Tony as he began to pace backwards and forwards in front of the glass. If he would only press the fucking panel!

"I am unable to scan the inside of the room sir, there appears to be some shield which is blocking my sensors" responded a distinctly female voice which sounded as if it came from the currently still and empty suit. How odd. And a bit creepy.

Tony stopped pacing and faced me, staring me down, almost as if he expected me to reveal all my secrets, even with my mask on. Only when I once again started flickering my eyes to the panel did he relent in this staring match we had appeared to have entered. Tony cast his eyes towards the panel, and I instantly knew he understood from the snarky grin that spread all over his face.

This one is smart.

"The glass is acting as a barrier to all my scanners, but if I had to take a guess, I think little miss Hannibal Lecter here is trying to tell us to press this panel" as he finished his sentence he lifted his hand to press against the glass panel, despite the late protests of the Captain.

A large blaring alarm began to be heard over head and red lights began to flash from the ends of the corridor, bathing the room in an ominous and disturbing light. The glass panel receded slightly to show images and video, files about me.

The glass wall, revealed to be a large screen, reveals everything I've done over the years, everything that Hydra has found out about me, either through research or through their experimentation.

Both the Captain and Tony were too focused on the newfound information, that they didn't notice the events happening inside the cell.

The shackles had cracked, perfectly along the edges. And finally, after God knows how many years of waiting, I'm free.

The cuffs around my arms dropped with a loud thud onto the ground, and I stepped out of the cuffs on my legs, after such a long time, standing. I quickly felt pain spread to my legs and back after being stuck in that damn metal chair for eons.

I reached up behind my head and ripped at the leather straps until I could pull the mask away from my face and take a large breath of air. I held the mask out in front of me and just looked at it for a few seconds, examining the contraption that had been on my face for years.

I dropped the mask with a heavy thud, and examined my hands and legs, seeing them for the first time in far too long.

I held out my arms in front of me and turned my hands over and over again, just looking at them. They looked strange, like they weren't even mine.

I then felt the familiar sensation of intense heat spread from the centre of my chest, to down my arms and spread from the edges of my fingertips. I winced as the familiar pain made itself known, as the fire now consumed my arm and spread to the floor, taking on the shape of a man.

This process took less than a second, having done it a million times before. The shape became more defined as the man, made of pure fire, dropped into a low bow in front of me. I smiled as I held my hand out to him, watching as the fiery hand consumed my own, and he rose to his full height a few inches taller than my frame.

He has always been taller than me. Even when I had asked him not to be, I personally thought he got a kick out of my frustration.

We both turned to face the now captivated audience of the Captain and Tony, both with looks of shock and horror on their faces. I gave an evil grin, knowing that the presence beside me was giving the exact same smile.

They quickly rushed to subdue whatever threat they thought I was, either from the information displayed across the glass or my now menacing presence. Or more likely the presence of my loyal friend at my side.

Tony quickly ran into his suit, the metal encasing his form, and the Captain lifted his shield from where he had placed it against his back whilst looking at the files.

I raised my hand to the glass and like a flick of a switch, fire instantly shot from outstretched palm and consumed the glass, melting it easily. As the molten glass began to drop, I walked forward towards the newly made opening with the man of fire following close behind me.

Finally.

Now they can see what I've had to suffer through.

Now we can be free.


	2. 2

As I took my first steps out of that cell, I had spent far too many years in to count, I knew that the two men waiting outside in stunned shock were going to become a problem.

The Captain and Tony quickly armed themselves and tried to calm the situation. Well the Captain tried to simmer things down, not so much the man of metal, who now stood with his arm outstretched towards me and my friend, palm up, with a strange light emitting from a large circle in its centre.

Maybe it was some sort of weapon…wow I really have been locked up too long.

"Ma'am I'm going to need you and your friend to stand down. We don't want to hurt you" yelled the Captain, trying to be heard over the sound of the blaring alarm they had set off when releasing me.

He kept one palm held up to show he meant no harm, but his other handheld his shield, and I know from experience, that in the hands of an expert, anything can be a deadly weapon.

"Come on Cap she's a little girl! We can just dump a bucket of water on her, maybe she and flameo over there will melt like the wicked witch of the west?" Came the voice from the suit.

"Oh no, I can assure you that will not be necessary" I said in a croaky voice, having not used it for so long that was to be expected. "I do not want to hurt you two either, so I would suggest you stay out of our way." I finished turning my back to them, knowing that fi they tried anything, my friend would take care of them.

I began to walk away from them before I heard the Captain call out to me "Wait a minute! What do you plan to do?"

I stopped in my tracks and turned my head to look over my shoulder at them, they both still had their respective weapons raised.

"Serve justice" was my only response before their view of me was blocked by a wall of fire seemingly created from nothing, but I knew better.

"Really Ignotus? I do not think that was necessary, they appear to be at least a little wise and know not to deal with you or me." I told my friend, turning to him, to see that he was simply watching the wall of fire he had created.

"It has been far too long, I do not want this opportunity taken away from me, taken away from us." He replied reaching out his hands to hold both of mine. "We have been confined for too long by those heathens"

"You do not think I know that? But just think for a moment. We do not even know what year we are in, how long we have been stuck here. I have missed you dearly, you and Carla and Tommy. But we should be wise, and not rash in our decisions, now more than ever. These are new times Ignotus and we will have a hard time adjusting."

Suddenly the alarm turned off, leaving an almost heavy silence to blare inside my ears instead. The newfound silence allowed me to hear running footfall, and unfortunately, it sounded like it was heading in our direction.

"You speak as if we have not had to do this before" Ignotus said as we both turned to face the oncoming barrage of soldiers. "We are quite capable of reinventing ourselves, how many times have we done it through the years? Certainly over one hundred times."

The soldiers all began to line up, blocking out exit "You heard the Baron!" Screamed one of the soldiers in the front. "Do not shoot to kill! Subdue the experiment! If she gets injured, it will be your head!"

They then began to advance on Ignotus and I, putting their guns away and pulling out what appeared to be batons as they came closer.

"It's different this time Ignotus you know that, too much time has gone past that we can just pick up where we left off. Deal with them" I said waving my hand in a la de da fashion towards the oncoming soldier who now appeared less enthusiastic and confidant about their task.

"As you wish my lady" came the reply I had heard for years.

"And Ignotus, don't be afraid to break a few spines" came my parting words as I took a step back to watch the show that I know Ignotus would perform for me.

As I watched Ignotus smashing skulls and snapping spines, all to the melodious music of their dying screams, I heard the sound of steps approaching me from behind.

"Hey lady, I don't know who you are, but I would suggest you come with us before you get yourself hurt" said the voice of the Captain from behind my back.

His persistence is starting to get on my nerves.

"Captain I would suggest you mind your own business and get out if this place before I change my mind on hurting you or not" I said turning my head slightly to look over my shoulder at him.

Apart from being slightly burned around the edges, probably from walking through the wall of fire Ignotus made, he looked perfectly fine.

Tony was no longer with him, I assume he was the one to turn of the alarm system, I knew that man of metal was smart the minute I saw him. But his intellect will not help him if he gets in my way.

"Ma'am you need to come with us now" he said again walking up to me and placing his glove covered hand on my shoulder.

I quickly took his hand from my shoulder, keeping a tight hold of it as I span behind him resulting in me holding his arm behind his back at an uncomfortable angle.

"Don't touch me" I said quietly in his ear, although I had to step on my tip toes a bit to reach due to him being taller than me.

"Don't you ever touch me." I lifted my leg and shoved it painfully into his back, releasing his arm from my hold, sending him stumbling away from me.

I began to turn back to check on Ignotus' progress of clearing the hall, when I heard the Captain call out to me again.

"I don't want to hit a lady, but you leave me no choice" I suddenly felt two strong arms wrapping themselves around my waist, securing my arms to my sides and stopping me from moving.

"I told you that I didn't want to hurt you Captain" I spoke softly, knowing he could hear me, I then brought my head forward and smashed it backwards into the Captain's nose.

Hearing a sickening crunch, I quickly brought my foot down onto his, feeling his grip weaken I brought my arms up and broke out of his grasp, spinning around to face him.

"But I think you've changed my mind" with those words I launched myself forward, kicking out his legs causing him to stumble and grab onto the nearest wall.

I approached him again, dodging multiple punches aimed for my face, arms, and chest, sensing that he wasn't really putting an effort in to try and actually hurt me.

Most likely still under the assumption that I was an innocent little girl. Let's prove him wrong.

I reached towards him, grabbed his helmet and rammed his head in to the wall, once, twice, but on the third and most likely final time, I was knocked to the side by a sudden blur, falling painfully onto my side, hitting me head in the process.

I began to raise myself onto my elbows with a groan when I felt the presence of Ignotus beside me, he placed his hands on my head where it has collided with the cement floors, and I began to feel a soothing heat spread from my head to my arms and legs.

"Remember that's my body too, try and take care of it" he whispered into my ear before he shot back into my body.

I gave a short hiss of pain; he knows that each time he exits and enters my body without me personally absorbing or summoning him it causes me a great deal of pain.

I think he considered it some form of punishment for going easy in the soldier and getting myself injured, Ignotus knew that as soon as the Captain grabbed me from behind, I could have turned him to ash.

But I didn’t because he is not the enemy at the moment. Hydra is the enemy, if he or the man of metal, or anyone else become a problem later on, I will deal with them.

But for now, I have personal matters to attend to.

I began to pick myself up when I felt the same force that had knocked me over before come rushing at me, I quickly rolled out of its path and shakily stood up, still not quite used to being out of the chair.

I turned to face where I left the soldier, but now instead of the just the Captain, there were 3 other people as well, all looking at me, staring, watching, like I'm the evil one, not the monsters who did the experimentations.

The first one I noticed was the Captain, obviously he didn't look too good. His helmet had come off to reveal short blonde hair which was matted with a bit of blood due to me trying to break his skull.

His eyes were stuck on me, but I surprisingly saw no murderous intent, rather a weariness that seemed to persist even now in the heat of battle.

The next person in the group was a woman with red hair, clothed in a tight black costume, holding a small pistol aimed at my head. I shifted slightly under her stare and watched as the gun followed my movement.

I knew that if I made a single wrong move, I would have my head blown off quicker than I could blink.

The next was the man of metal again, I think I will just call him Tony from now on. His suit had a few scratches and marked in it so I can imagine the Hydra soldiers put up a good fight.

He once again had his palm outstretched towards me, I wonder if doing that actually served some sort of purpose or if it just made him feel better and more in control of the situation.

Finally a man dressed in armour with a flowing red cape holding a large hammer stood next to the wounded soldier, he looked everything like the intimidating person he was trying to be. With his shoulders squared and face set into a mean grimace.

Looking at the line up, I knew there was no way of me getting out of this without at least a few scratches, or maybe missing a few limbs. 'Ignotus what am I to do?! I see no way out of this situation which doesn't end with me bleeding to death somewhere after being attacked by this motley grew' I spoke inside my head, keeping my eyes on all of the newcomers.

'Then do the smart thing, preservation and wise thinking is how we has survived this long. Just make the smart decision.' Spoke Ignotus' voice in response, and with those words I did the only smart thing I could think of.

I slowly began to raise my hands from where they hung at my sides, until they were held next to my head, palm outward towards the group. Hopefully, they saw this as a form of surrender and wouldn't shoot me or maim me. Either one doesn't sound particularly pleasant.

"Enough guys, she didn't want to hurt me, I attacked her first." Came the ever so slightly slurred voice of the Captain. I wonder how much damage I did when I smashed his head into the wall.

Knowing that he had just defended me, and potentially saved my life, I began to feel a bit of guilt because of my earlier actions against him. But like he said, he attacked first.

"Let's just check that shall we" said the red headed woman, keeping her gun raised and giving a nod to something behind me.

Before I could turn to see who, the woman had given a signal to, I felt a force trying to enter my mind and I fell to my knees in shock.

'Oh they have a telepath, that's probably a bad idea.' Came the voice of Ignotus again. Wait no no no! I want to prove that I'm not a threat! But In situations like these, I have no real power.

I begin to feel a heat building in my brain from the pressure the telepath was exerting into my mind, trying to read it.

I tried to stop her by raising my hands to pull hers away from the side of my head, but my hands were no longer my own. In these situations, Ignotus has full control.

Suddenly a loud feminine scream came from behind me and the pressure was instantly gone, and I got full control of my body back.

I whirled around to see a young woman, maybe a year or two older than my physical form with dark long brown hair kneeling behind me, hunched over and clutching her hands to her chest and screaming out in pure agony.

Before I could blink a man with similar facial features a striking blonde hair appeared next to the woman in a blur of blue and white. I wonder if they were related somehow.

I heard the group behind me begin to advance, knowing that I had failed some sort of test they had for me, I did exactly what Ignotus told me to.

I made the smart decision. I quickly reached forward towards the woman and grabbed at her burnt hands and began to reverse the effects of Ignotus' fire as quickly as I could, hoping that this would prove to them that I in fact meant no harm and the fire was not caused by me.

I felt the burns on the woman's hands begin to recede and heal when I felt a sudden pinch on the side of my neck.

Stupid. So stupid. I was too busy focused on healing the burnt woman's hands that I didn't notice the woman with the red hair pull the trigger of her gun, sending out a small dart aimed perfectly at my jugular.

My vision began to blur and I pitched backwards slightly, with my last ounce of strength I looked up at the woman whose hands I was still clutching with a look of desperation in my eyes, praying that she knew I never intended for her to get hurt.

I began to tip backwards feeling my legs push out from my kneeling position till my head once again hit the cold, solid cement of the ground.

I continued to keep my eyes open for as long as possible, the sounds around me all fading into one, until all I heard was one voice.

"Do not worry, I will look after your body while you are unconscious" came the voice of Ignotus floating through my head.

With that promise I slowly began to close my eyes, knowing that Ignotus wouldn't let anyone kill me or harm me while I was out.

'I guess my freedom will have to wait...' I thought to myself as everything slowly went black.


	3. 3

Darkness.

That's all that could be seen for miles and miles around me.

There was nothing. There is nothing. Only darkness.

But then a voice calls out to me through the endless sea of black, its voice sounds familiar. Like a dream, or maybe a memory.

'Wake up... It's time to wake up...' But I don't want too, I like it here.

It's calm and quiet and there's no one here who can hurt me.

'Don't be a stupid little girl, everyone wants to hurt you, to make you suffer. The only person you have is me. I thought you would have learned that by now?' No, you're wrong.

There are people who don't want to hurt me, people who care about me. There has to be.

'Oh? And who would that be? Your mother? Who defaced you the moment you were born? Your father who locked you in the basement for the first 17 years of your life? Or maybe all the countless people who have tried to hurt you, hurt us, while we have been together?'

'The only person you have, you will ever have, is me. You know that everyone will leave you eventually. They will grow old and die, while you stay the same. We are bound. Remember that.'

But can't I just leave that life behind? Live in this peaceful abyss forever?

'Of course not, you are living for both of us remember. Now like I said before, it's time for you to WAKE UP.'

"Ghuahh!" I gasped loudly as I shot upright in the bed I was laying in, quickly whipping my head left and right, looking around the room and trying to remember what happened to me and where I was.

The room I was in resembled a large glass box, all of the walls were clear and lined with a bright silver metal to keep the glass together.

Looking around the room, all I could see was what appeared to be medical equipment, although it looked a lot different from what I remembered before I was captured by Hydra.

There were large cylindrical tubes, which could fit a person in, placed in the corner of the room, and a lot of medical tables with various other tools scattered around the hospital room.

"Agghh..." I groaned as I cradled my pounding head in my hands, the pain I assume came from my sudden awakening.

I have been waking up with headaches for a long time now, feeling like my head had been run over with a steam train.

I'm assuming it has something to do with my dreams, or lack of as it was.

I have been unable to remember my dreams for the longest time, but even without the memories of what happened in them, I knew that they were important.

This made the whole experience even more infuriating then before, knowing that the information was within my reach, but I was unable to grasp it.

After rubbing at my temples for a few seconds, hoping to relieve the headache I began to raise my hands further to push my hair back, but I felt a slight tug at the back of left hand.

I quickly snapped my head down to observe what caused the strange sensation, and what I saw scared me far more than it should have.

A small needle had been pressed into the vein in the back of my hand, attached to the needle was a tube leading up to a clear plastic bag suspended by a metal pole with a clear liquid inside of it.

The liquid was slowly being feed into my body by a dripper, which made an awful and skin chilling noise in the silent hospital room.

Feeling my skin blanch and my stomach lurch I quickly pulled the needle from the back of my hand, feeling a pinch and a small sting afterwards from my abrasive method.

Throwing the needle to the side, I then began the long process of removing all of the tiny pads and wires that had been stuck to me, making quick work of them due to my slight hysteria.

I've hated needles for my whole life, my past was definitely a 'troubled' one, but out of all my past fears, needles have been one of the fears to stay with me.

Only when I threw my legs over the side of the bed and began to get out of it did I hear a familiar voice.

"It has been suggested that you stay in bed until the doctors get the results back from the tests, they ran on you while unconscious." Came the familiar, calm voice of Ignotus from the corner of the room.

For some reason hearing his voice made me feel as if I was forgetting something important, something I had just been told.

Like the feeling you get when you wake up from a dream and you know it's important, but try as you might, you can't remember what the dream was about.

I had been experiencing that feeling a lot recently, it always happened right after I woke up, like something in my dream had been important and I needed to remember it.

I looked over to see him standing with his arms crossed in the corner of the room, almost like a guard on patrol.

I suppose in a way that is rather accurate, this is his body he's protecting too.

"Why did you let them do this?" I questioned, "You know me, you've known me for an eternity. Why would you allow them to do this to me?" I gestured my hands around wildly to encompass the surrounding room, getting straight to the point.

Not only was I angry at his negligence, but also at his blatant disregard for my fears and my previous orders.

"This" he said mimicking my previous action and sweeping his hand across the room, "is for your own good. Our time in that facility had weakened your body, the doctors stressed that they would not harm you and that they were doing this to save your life."

"And you believed them?" I questioned raising my voice slightly, crawling out of the hospital bed and slowly making my way over to stand in front of him.

I crossed my arms and looked up into his flaming eyes, "are you not the one who is always telling me not to trust anyone?" I probed further, wanting to understand his motives, and knowing that he would simply evade the question if I asked outright.

"Yes I am, but I am also the one who is always telling you about self-preservation, it appears even after all these years you haven't learnt the simple lesson of using others to further yourself." He said reaching his hand up to hold it against my cheek.

The fire of his hand brought a calming heat to my cool skin, it didn't burn me though, no fire has hurt me in a long time.

The heat brought a sense of comfort as he brushed his thumb over the long, jagged scar which resided on the left side of my face.

"This act of violence should be a constant reminder to you about why we should care about ourselves over other." He spoke gently as his thumb travelled the expanse of the scar, reaching from around the centre of my forehead, over my left eye and trailing down to stop an inch away from the bottom of my left ear.

Where the scar crossed over my eye had left it sliced, the colour mutating from its original black to a clear white.

I was incredibly lucky that I didn't go blind in that eye, the only problem was that my eyes looked even worse than they did before.

"This act of violence is proof of the stupidity of the past and you know it. If I had been born only 30 years later, my eyes would have been considered normal, rather than a sign of the devil." I said brashly, flicking his hand away from my face and taking a step back.

"Your family was one built on religion, your heterochromia made them think that the devil had possessed you and they did what they thought was the right thing to free you from his entrapment" Ignotus explained for the thousandth time, most likely finding the same level of humour in my family's stupidity as the day he found out about the event.

"I'm well aware of that Ignotus, and we have discussed this topic many times. Sometimes I think you might actually be defending them for what they did to me." I accused with a harsh snarl on my face.

"You and I both know that that is not true, I would never defend them. But I do thank them, were it not for their actions, you and I would never have met. You would be long dead, and I would be incredibly bored without you."

I raised my eyebrows and crossed my arms in front of my chest "Oh please! If I were not there, I am sure you would have found another vessel to inhabit to keep you occupied. Honestly, sometimes you act like a perpetual child."

"Perhaps, perhaps not" was the only response Ignotus made, his flippant and nonchalant nature only served to anger me more.

"Where am I and what has happened in the time, I have been unconscious?" I questioned, walking back over to the hospital cot, and perching myself on the edge of the bed, looking down at myself in the process.

I was dressed in a very similar attire to what I wore at Hydra, a tie up hospital gown with short sleeves which reached down to just above my knees.

There were a few differences between the attire, for example the gown I was currently dressed in was white rather than the offset grey one they dressed me in at the facility.

The material also appeared to be different as it didn't irritate my skin every time I moved, which was extremely good as this one clung a bit tighter to my body, obviously more suited to my body shape than the large billowy ones Hydra had been shoving me in.

The only downfall to this new outfit was that it felt a lot more exposed now that the material showed more of my body, the way it dipped and curved in certain places, or rather lack of curves.

My body shape left much to be desired, the only real curvature I had were my hips, my breasts were so small that my chest appeared flat.

The newly exposed skin also showed where scalpels, knives, and other equipment, both surgical and not, had been taken to my skin in my younger years before Ignotus and I met.

I naturally began to hunch over more, using my long hair to hide some of the more grotesque scars, crossing my arms tightly in front of my chest and throwing a blanket over my legs to cover them.

I looked though my long dingy and scraggly hair to watch Ignotus as he uncrossed his arms, knowing that he was watching me just the same.

He walked over to kneel in front of me on the bed, picking up a strand of my hair with his pointer finger and thumb, rubbing it between the two until it started to singe slightly.

That was the thing with my hair, the rest of my body was impervious to Ignotus' fire, or any fire for that matter, due to use being linked and me sharing his fire.

But for some reason my hair remained slightly flammable.

Sure it took a few seconds for my hair to start to burn with my flames, rather than other humans’ hair which would be gone the instant it came into contact with either mine or Ignotus' flames.

"This will have to go" he said in a stern voice, watching as I nodded my head in agreement, I did hate having long hair.

When I was first placed in Hydra, they shaved my head, but it wasn't too much of a change considering my hair was quite short anyway.

But looking at its length now, it really made me question just how long we had been locked up in that facility.

Ignotus and I both whipped our heads round to face the glass door as it slammed open revealing four people who strode into the room and stood a few feet from the end of the bed.

"Step away from each other" said the Captain, flickering his eyes back and forth between us.

I looked to Ignotus and gave him a look, telling him to comply with the Captains wishes.

Ignotus stood up from his crouched position by the bed and waked over to the corner of the room he had been in previously, keeping a calm face, but I knew that he was silently fuming at being told what to do by outsiders.

Looking back to the Captain I noticed that one of his eyes was slightly bruised and his nose looked no better, having a bandage over the bridge of it.

"We are going to ask you some questions, if you act out, we will sedate you again. If you refuse, we will have one of our own force the answers out of you." Said the Captain gesturing his hand to the woman whose hands I burnt when explaining that the answers would be forced out of me.

"You and I both know that the answers cannot be 'forced out of me' as you say, by anyone. However I will answer as many questions as I can to help you. I can assure that I mean no harm."

My words were spoken as message of peace and good will, but one of the people in the room didn't take it like that.

The man standing behind the telepath suddenly pushed himself forward, advancing on my position in the bed.

"Oh? You think burning my sister's hands is a sign of good will? That you mean no harm? Why should we trust you?!" He preached, though I was not sure who he was directing the questions at.

His voice sounded different, he very clearly had an accent, but I was unable to place it, it sounded a bit like Russian, but I doubt that it actually was.

"Look at your sisters’ hands now, there are no burns" I said calmly, gesturing my hands over to the woman in question, knowing that I had at least healed most of the burns on her hands.

The man with shocking blonde hair turned around to face his sister, giving her an imploring look.

"Wanda?..." He questioned, backing up to stand next to her.

The psychic, now known as Wanda, hesitantly lifted her hands up to face the rest of the group.

Her hands were fine.

I knew they would be, but upon closer inspection, there appeared to be a small burn on the palm of Wanda's left hands.

"Oh dear, it appears I have missed a spot. Come here and let me fix that" I spoke quietly, gesturing my hands in a come hither motion to the woman.

"Wait a minute! How do we know that you won't just burn her alive huh?! How can we trust you?!" Yelled Wanda's brother, thrusting his arm out to keep Wanda from coming any closer to me.

He feared for her safety, I wonder how that felt? To know that there was someone who will always look out for you no matter what.

I looked over to Ignotus for a split second. No, it's not the same.

"Because If I wanted to hurt Wanda, I would not have healed the burns Ignotus gave her" I said calmly, placing my hands on my lap.

"Who's Ignotus? You were the one to give her theses burns, we all saw it!" Damn, this guy really has it out for me.

"This" I said getting up from the bed and waking over to the corner, "is Ignotus" I finished with my hands held to the side to indicate who I was talking about.

"He was the one to burn Wanda's hands, because she was trying to invade my mind. Ignotus dealt with the threat as he saw fit" I reasoned keeping my arms by my side, hoping to appear unthreatening.

I would not condemn Ignotus' actions, nor would I support them, I know that he did what he thought was best.

"It's true" spoke Wanda shocking everyone and coming to stand next to her brother, placing her hand on his shoulder in a sign of reassurance.

"Pietro, when she healed my hands, I looked in her eyes and I saw regret, pain and fear. She fears us, more than we fear her. I know that she never meant to hurt me."

Wanda looked up at me and took her hand from Pietro's shoulder and made her way over to stand in front of me with a look of sincerity.

I held out my hands in front of me for Wanda to place hers into my outstretched palm. I quickly wrapped her left hand with both of mine and focused on reversing the burns Ignotus gave her.

I released her hands after a few seconds held her hands in my own looking up at her with eyes that I hoped conveyed just how much her trust meant to me.

Wanda looked down at her now healed hands and backed up to stand back next to Pietro, giving his hand a squeeze to assure him that she was all right.

I looked back to the other two people in the room who had been incredibly silent through the whole ordeal.

The Captain was scrutinising me with his arms crossed and his eyes focused on me, I imagine that he still wasn't happy with me for hurting him.

Tony was looking at me with a mixture of fascination and intent, if I had to guess what he was thinking, I would say the exact same thing that people have been thinking for years.

'How can I harness this power?' It's exactly what Hydra had thought before they captured me, and what countless others have thought before them.

The Captain unfolded his arms and placed his hands on his belt buckle. "Explain." He said in a commanding tone, leaving no room for argument.

I looked back to Ignotus who stood behind me, also noticing that he had been quiet while Wanda, Pietro and I had been talking, or rather arguing.

Ignotus looked down at me and gave me an indecipherable look, which I took as his signal to do what I thought best in the situation.

I turned back to the group, "it's a long story" I said looking at the Captain, assuming he was the leader of this little organisation.

The Captain gave a small smile, gesturing to the hospital bed. "We've got time. Talk"


	4. 4

Following the Captains orders, I slowly made my way over to the hospital bed and sat down on the edge of it with a deep sigh, crossing my legs at the knee.

"You all might want to take a seat; this is going to be a very long story" I said looking at the group of people who were all hovering at the entrance of the hospital room.

With looks of mild apprehension on their faces, they followed my suggestion, and all made their way to a group of white, plush seats next to the bed.

I imagine that's where concerned visitors of the sick would sit, like family members and friends, but I have neither of those things, so I guess I'm left to settle with a group of people who may or may not want to kill me.

I looked over to Ignotus and gestured him over to sit beside me, but he shook his head and waved his hand out in a 'go ahead' manner, I imagine he doesn't want any part of what is to come.

Releasing another deep sigh and leaning forward slightly, I made eye contact with everyone in the room before I began to tell my life's story

"Alright then, I imagine you will not want me to omit any juicy details, so I will start at the very beginning, as all good tales do in my opinion."

"I was born in the year 1716-"

"What!?" Oh dear I thought most of the interruptions would come later on in the story.

"You can't expect us to believe, that right? I mean come on! You must be what? 18? 19? Do you honestly think we're going to buy that bullshit?" Came the condescending voice of Tony, crossing his arms in his seat and looking at me like one would a child.

Safe to say I didn't appreciate that look coming from someone over 200 years younger than me, to be honest I didn't really know what year it was, I might be even older.

"I will only tell me story if there are no interruptions, I will explain everything that I can, and if you do have questions at the end you are free to ask them, does that sound alright?" I asked, giving Tony the same look he was giving me a moment ago.

With an agitated huff, Tony slid back into his seat and waved his arms around "speak your unbelievable tale, oh mysterious silver tongue" he said with an over exaggerated British accent, which I found rather insulting.

Just don't kill him.

You might be able to get out of this without any more bloodshed.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I was born in the year 1716 to a Marquess and Marchioness by the names of Lord and Lady Gilmore on the morning of the sixth of April.

"At the time, the Lord and Lady were in their town house in London for a spring ball hoisted by King George the first in honour of some event I do not know nor care about.

"I was their first and only child, for after my birth, I believed them to be so traumatised by the event they did not want to try for another child.

"You see, I was born with a rare coloration defect called heterochromia, which is not so rare now but, in those days, it was practically unheard of, especially in noble families.

"As you can see," I brought me hand up to my left eye and traced the long jagged scar that covered it, "my parents were absolutely horrified by this.

"They thought I was possessed by some sort of demon, due to the drastic colour difference, one eye a golden brown and the other pitch black.

"My family's blood line was filled with superstition and mystery, the common folk believing our ancestors to be witches who obtained their status through sorcery and other nefarious means.

"Of course all of this was complete folly, but my parent valued propriety and public image above all else, and knowing that my strange affliction would bring scandal, they did what they thought necessary.

"So as soon as I was born and handed over to my mother, she told my father to go and grab a bread knife from down in the kitchen of the town house and bring it back up to her.

"He did as he was told and as soon as the knife was in her hand, she tried to cut out my eye." I finished with a small smile on my face, looking out at the shocked faces of the room.

"Safe to say she did not succeed in her plot to kill me, one of the midwives came in to check on my mother and found her trying to shove a knife into my skull."

I looked down at my hands and watched as I clenched and unclenched them into fists over and over again.

"I owe my life to that woman, unfortunately I never got the chance to repay that debt of gratitude."

I pushed myself further onto the bed, crossing my legs the other way and placing my arms behind me to prop myself up in a leaning position.

"Once the woman had gotten me from my mother's clutches and cleaned my wound to make sure I wouldn't die of blood loss or infection, she tried to run with me to the police station to try arrest my parents.

"Little did she know that some of the deception and villainy my family's name had been built on was true.

"Only a few paces from the door, my father grabbed the woman from behind and slit her throat, causing her to drop me and collapse on top of me, covering me in her blood.

"My father ordered the woman's corpse to be thrown in the Thames and took me to the nursery they had set up for their perfect child." I gave a small laugh and shook my head at the memory Ignotus had given me, as I was too young to remember myself.

"Except I wasn't the perfect child they always wanted, nor would I ever be, so they did what they thought was best.

"Knowing that the staff were loyal, and that none of them saw me with the dead midwife, my mother constructed a story that I had died in childbirth, and the grief of the event drove the midwife to kill herself.

"It was a rather clever ruse I will admit, the only problem was that they had no way of getting me back to the mansion, out of London without being seen by anyone.

"So my parents claimed that their estate out of London had been robbed and vandalised so they had to stay in the town house until everything was fixed, which they claimed would take years of work.

"At the first opportunity, they began to construct my 'room' under the guise of a wine cellar in the basement, employing only trustworthy people so there would be no word of it escaping to the outside.

"This 'wine cellar' was actually a prison, complete with metal bars to block me from the stairway to the door, and a small metal bed with no mattress or blanket on it, which I never used.

"It even had a tiny window at the top of the furthest wall, also covered in metal bars, which was my only source of sunlight for almost eighteen years.

"I had no way to measure the time, except to try and see what season it was outside the small window, so I'm not completely sure exactly how many years I spent down there.

"In my younger years, a maid was sent down there for a few hours every day to take care of me, feed me, clean me all of the standard things a child needs to survive.

"When I was five years old the maid suddenly stopped coming, I always wondered what happened to her, knowing my family they probably killed her and made it look like an accident.

"Instead of a caretaker, a small hole was dug in the ground and bowl of water placed inside it, this was to be where I washed myself.

"The staff would sometimes let me go outside into the forest in the early hours of the morning on a leash, like some common dog.

"I hated my life, I knew it wasn't a normal life or a nice life to live, only when I started to grow older did it get slightly better." I looked up to make sure that my audience was still captivated and found they had all moved to sit at the edge of their seats had all leaned forward slightly, probably unknown to them.

I gave a small smile at that, knowing that this tale may be the difference between whether they see me as a threat or not, if they kill me or not.

"When I reached around seven years old, a servant began to bring me books, maybe once or twice a month, always giving me a knew one and taking away the old one so as not to get caught.

"With these books, I began to educate myself the best I could, sometime when the servant came down, I would ask him for help, either with a word I didn't know or a sentence I didn't quite understand.

"He was my first friend, he must have been around ten or fifteen years older than me, but I never cared, for once I had a friend who cared about me and actually liked to talk to me.

"At least that's what I thought, looking back I can't help but think how naive I was, but oh well, that is all in the past now.

"The years went on and me and the servant, William I found out his name was, grew closer, he was the only person I ever saw, he delivered my food and water, and he was the only person I could speak to.

"When I was around eighteen years old, something suddenly changed in William, one day he came down the stairs and unlocked the door, but he didn't have anything in his hands and he didn't have the smile on his face that he always wore when he saw me.

"I knew something was wrong, but I wasn't sure what, so I asked him, but he never responded, he kept his face expressionless.

"When he was in my cell, he locked the door behind him, advanced on me and tried to force himself on me" I looked to the ceiling of the hospital room remembering the day with perfect clarity despite how long ago it was.

"I was so scared, I had no idea what was happening or why my only friend was trying to hurt me, so I did everything I could to get out of his grip.

"Grabbing one of the hardcover books William had given me, I lifted it over his head and brought it down on to the top of his spine, right where his neck and head connected.

"He slumped to the ground in a pile of lifeless limbs, I had killed him instantly, it was the first person I had ever killed, but he was certainly not the last."

I pushed myself up from my leaning position and stood up from the bed, instead deciding to slowly pace the length of the room with my arms crossed behind my back and my head slightly bowed.

"Eventually some of the staff noticed that William never came back up from the basement, so my father went down to check on what happened.

"When he saw Williams's lifeless corpse, he rushed back upstairs, got my mother and brought her back down to stand in front of my cage.

"It had been so long since I had seen them that I almost didn't recognise them, but I did recognise their voice, they had haunted my nightmares for years.

"After observing the mess I had made, they both agreed that they could use this situation to their advantage.

"So my father opened my cell, grabbed me by my hair and slammed my face into the concrete wall, effectively knocking me unconscious, although I imagine there were more elegant ways of doing it.

"When I woke up again, I found out that my parents had removed the cell bars in the basement and staged it to look like an actual wine cellar.

"They claimed that William had gone down there to put away some wine from the previous night, but upon meeting a witch performing rituals in the basement, he went to run.

"The witch, played by me, supposedly cast a spell and killed him where he stood, I then apparently tried to burn the house down with everyone inside.

"My blood line have always been good at weaving stories and making them believable, so the police bought the whole story and began to set up my execution for being a witch.

"Only hours after waking up from being knocked unconscious, I was dragged from the holding cell I had been placed in at the police station, to West Smith Field, as was the traditional place for burning witches in London.

"I was strapped to the stake over the bonfire in front of hundreds of spectators, who all showed up to watch me burn."

I stopped pacing and turned to the sound of a small gasp which came from Wanda, who had one hand over her mouth, the other was being held by Pietro in a sign of reassurance.

"It's quite alright Wanda, the good part is coming up soon" I said to the girl with a small smile on my face, even though this 'good part' could be seen as both a blessing and a curse.

"I'm sure my family were happy; they finally had a way of getting rid of me without being suspicious and without getting their own hands dirty in the process.

"When the crowd started cheering and a priest brought the flaming torch down to light the pier, I started to struggle and scream and cry, normal things one should do if they are about to be burned at the stake.

"Of course it didn't make a difference, it never does, so the fire was lit, and I began to burn.

"It was the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my hundreds of years of existence, I could feel my skin bubbling and boiling as the fire travelled further up my body.

"It felt like hours before I heard a small, quiet voice in my ear whispering 'do you wish to make a contract?' Of course being on the brink of death I would accept any way out, so I screamed out 'yes' for the whole crowd to hear.

"Then suddenly, the fire didn't hurt anymore, my skin began to heal as my bonds holding me the stake began to break."

I looked down at the ground giving an evil sort of grin at the floor, remembering what was to come.

"As climbed off of the bonfire and walked out of the fire in front of everyone, another form emerged from the fire behind me, and asked me what I wanted to do with them, gesturing his fiery hand out to encompass the fearful crowd."

I looked up making eye contact with everyone before setting my eyes on Ignotus.

"Kill them."

"And that's what he did, he turned them all to ash for me before I could even blink, leaving them as small piles on the ground, he then turned to me and began to explain the rules of our contract."

I began to walk up to Ignotus as I spoke watching his face morph into a small smirk, similar to the one I wore as we remembered the event that bound us together.

"He told me that I was now his vessel and that he could use it however he pleased and I could not complain, my body would serve as a respite to him, in exchange I got immortality and a loyal guard dog.

"With the rules of the contract laid out I gave the man of fire a name, I chose 'Ignotus' because it means 'unknown' in Latin, and in exchange he gave me my name.

"My parents had never bothered to name me, thinking that it would make me appear more human than I actually was, so he named me 'Aries' because he would often say that I was stubborn as an old ram.

"After that we went underground to avoid the ramifications of our actions, keeping to ourselves, growing closer and friendlier with each other.

"However one day, when we were up in Norway, only around 50 or so years after the forming of the contract, something went…wrong."

I looked over to Ignotus, trying to tell if he was still angry about this, but from his calm demeanour, I didn't think he was, maybe he finally saw the situation we were in as something more than a curse.

"One day I woke up from my sleep in the cave we had chosen to inhabit, surrounded by fire, it didn't burn me though, no fire has since my burning at the stake and the forming of the contract.

"It turns out that Ignotus and I had stayed in a contract together for too long, and I had somehow leeched off of his fire ability, and we were now unable to separate and break the contract without killing both of us in the process."

I clicked my fingers and watched as the bright fire consumed my hand but never burned and never created smoke.

"This new development was a surprise, as most contracts like our lasted until the entity got bored and broke it, usually only lasting around five or ten years.

"That's all the contracts were to the makers, entertainment, after all when you're immortal, you do get bored rather easily.

"Over the years we would create new identities for me, and we would live a few years in whatever country we wanted, travelling the world.

"But obviously we couldn't stay for long in one place, as the local people would notice that I was not ageing as I should be.

"We kept this lifestyle for years, moving from place to place undetected, avoiding events like World War One and World War Two and other large scale wars, but one day, we slipped up.

"After the end of World War Two, in 1945 we emerged from our new hiding spot in Scotland to find a group of people waiting for us, before we could attack, a tranquilliser was shot at me and I fell unconscious.

"When I woke up, I was in that same cell that you found me in, and Ignotus was residing inside my head.

"Instantly I knew something was wrong, because the both of us prefer having our own bodies and Ignotus will only retreat to me when he has been seriously injured or to protect my body.

"It turns out that the people who kidnapped me, who I later found out called themselves Hydra, were planning to try and extract my powers and use them to create super weapons and super humans,

"Idiots, after a few years of that, they realised that they couldn't achieve their goal, so they made a new hypothesis, 'how far can we push the immortal before she dies?'"

I slowly made my way over to the bed and sat down heavily on the side facing the group of chairs, giving a long drawn out sigh which morphed into a dry chuckle.

"As you can clearly see, they did not succeed in their experiment, despite their best efforts to do so.

"And that's how you found me, in that cell, so now that I've hopefully answered at least a few of your questions may I ask at least one?"

I looked to the Captain for an answer and saw him slowly nod his head in agreement.

"What year is it?" I questioned, tilting my head slightly to the side unknowingly, causing Ignotus to stifle a small smile at the action.

"2015, you were in that Hydra facility for 70 years." Came the slow and surprisingly gentle answer from Tony, looking at me like I was going to explode or collapse at any moment.

"70 years... 70...years..." I spoke softly under my breath.

I have lived for almost 300 years, that's, terrifying.

"That's a lot longer than I thought I was in there for” I whispered looking to Ignotus to see him raise his eyebrows slightly.

"Ok" I said in a shaky voice hoping to distract the spectators from my inner turmoil, "does anyone have any questions?"


	5. 5

Everyone looked at me with varying, different expressions, although they all wore a look of surprise or apprehension on their faces.

Tony looked intrigued, I knew that he was thinking, despite everything that I had told him about Hydras failure at extracting my powers, that he could somehow use this ability of mine to further himself or his career.

The Captain, I really need to find out what his real name is, had a look of almost sympathy in his eyes, as if he could understand what I had been through and the pain I had experienced.

I highly doubt that.

Wanda and Pietro's expressions were very similar, both looking at me like I was some sort of miracle, with shock and wonder written all over their faces as they clutched at each other's hands tightly.

I don't know what to make of that look, I feel like they know something that I don't, something about me.

I really don't like that feeling.

"I'm going to assume that none of you have any questions for me at the moment-"

"What's the extent of your powers?" Interrupted Tony, sitting forward and putting his elbows on his knees, looking me straight in the eye.

"I have not finished speaking, and it is very rude to interrupt someone whilst they are talking" I spoke in a dictating tone, standing up from the bed and walking to the wall behind me and leaning against it.

I looked over the now familiar faces once again, "I now have a few questions that I would like you to answer, and I believe I am entitled to that much at least." I crossed my arms in front of my chest and levelled the room with a stern look.

"I believe that's only fair, after everything you've told us." Came the Captains strong voice as he leaned back slightly in his uncomfortable chair.

"Names" was the only word I said looking out at the group of people with now confused faces.

"Names? What do you mean?" Spoke the Captain again, unfolding his arms and placing them on the flimsy, plastic armrest.

"Names, your names, you know mine I might as well know yours" came my casual response, though I knew most of their names already, I wanted to confirm that the names I was calling them by in my head are actually their real names.

"You don't know who we are?" Came the arrogant voice of Tony standing up from his chair and crossing his arms with a look of offence.

"Of course she doesn't, she's been stuck in a Hydra base for the last 70 odd years, of course she wouldn't know we are Tony" said the Captain, defending my lack of knowledge on the room’s current inhabitants.

"Alright alright, I get it Capsicle, you oldies have to stick together and look out for each other after all."

The twins were silent throughout the little spat that the two men were having, choosing instead to whisper quietly between each other, constantly darting their eyes to me.

I knew they were talking about me, but I didn't really care at this point in time, I was too busy focusing on the Captain and Tony's small argument.

"I apologise for his behaviour, my name his Steve Rodgers, that Tony although I imagine you already know that now" said the Captain, now known as Steve, as he came over and extended his hand towards me.

Thankful that greeting customs hadn't changed in the last 70 years I extended my hand to his and shook his outstretched palm.

"It's nice to meet you, I would like to apologise for my earlier introduction" I said gesturing the hand that had just been freed from the handshake, up towards Steve's face, which was slightly bruised around the eyes and had a plaster over the bridge of his nose.

"I should be the one apologising ma'am I was the one who attacked you first, I should have followed your advice" replied Steve, bringing his hand up to scratch at the back of his neck with a small smile, remembering the advice I had given him.

_ "Hey lady, I don't know who you are, but I would suggest you come with us before you get yourself hurt" said the voice of the Captain from behind my back. _

_ His persistence is starting to get on my nerves. _

_ "Captain I would suggest you mind your own business and get out if this place before I change my mind on hurting you or not." _

"Ok back up Cap it's time she meets a real hero" said Tony as Steve stepped aside and allowed Tony to see me.

"Tony stark, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist" he said as he shook my hand with a smug look, as if was supposed to be impressed by his array of titles.

"Oh and who gave you all of those titles? Or were they self-appointed?" I said with a condescending smile on my face.

"Oh snap girly that hurt! I'm going to have to keep an eye on you if you keep up that sass, maybe you can use it on someone who actually deserves it huh?"

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean" was my only reply as I turned to the last two inhabitants in the room who I hadn't yet been introduced to.

They both still appeared to be in their own little world together, sharing hushed whispers back and forth, not once looking up to see that everyone was now looking at them.

"Hey Chatty Cathy's! Come introduce yourselves!" Shouted Tony even though the twins were only a few metres away from where we were standing in the corner of the room.

Tony shouting seemed to distract them from whatever sort of conversation they were having, causing them to snap their heads over to us and look at me with the same looks of awe and wonder.

"My apologies, my name is Wanda Maximoff, and this is my twin brother Pietro." Said Wanda, both of them standing and coming over to stand in front of me.

"Maximoff? Why do I feel as if that name is familiar?" I looked over to Ignotus, hoping that he would tell me what I was missing, but seeing his clear look of disinterest told me otherwise.

"Perhaps you heard our name from one of the scientists at the facility, we were both once experiments of Hydra also" said Pietro, both of them speaking in the same, strange accent I wasn't familiar with.

"Ah yes, I remember now. I heard a few months ago from a passing scientist that the Maximoff twins had escaped from a facility in Sokovia. Is that you two?" I asked, flicking my eyes back and forth between the two of them.

"Yes, that is us" replied Wanda looking down at the ground with a look of shame on her face as Pietro clenched his fists at his aides.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up, I understand that any experience with Hydra is an awful one and it is better left forgotten." I said hoping to make them feel better.

"It is alright it's not your fault" said Pietro, placing a comforting hand on his sister's shoulder. "I imagine anything we went through must seem like a paper cut compared to everything that you went through."

I tried to interrupt him and tell him that even if someone has experienced worsen than you, that doesn't mean that your experience was any less awful.

"I mean, 70 years that's a long time to spend being tortured by Hydra. And we weren't even being tortured! Once our experimentations were over, Hydra tried to keep us alive. But the whole time you are with them they were trying to kill you; I can't even begin to imagine how awful it must have been for you..."

After Pietro had finished his little monologue I stepped forward and placed both of my hands on the twin's shoulders, giving them a tight squeeze.

"Everyone's experiences in life are different. I've lived a very long life, filled with pain and sadness, and my capture at Hydra is just another chapter in my story.

The same as it is a chapter in yours, now you can both build on that chapter and make a new story, or you can reread that chapter over and over again and never move on.

I have learned to embrace the pain and learned to live instead for the times that make me happy, I hope that you can achieve that too someday."

Giving them one last meaningful look and a final squeeze of the shoulder, I let go and took a step back from them, turning to face Tony instead.

"I believe you said you wanted to see my powers?" I said with a smile, "if so, I will have to request we go somewhere less...flammable"

I suddenly felt as if I was being watched, so I turned and looked at Ignotus, seeing him giving me a stern look, I turned back to the group with an apologetic smile.

"I'm terribly sorry, but can you give Ignotus and me a few minutes alone to discuss something? I promise it will not take too long." I directed my question to Steve as he seemed the most reasonable and the one in charge.

Steve turned to look at Tony, and after silent state down he returned his gaze back to me, "of course, we will be just down the hall when you decide to come out." He said with a dazzling smile.

"Thank you so much" I said with a smile in return as they all walked out of the glass room and down the hall till, I could no longer see them.

When they turned the final corner my smile instantly fell from my face, I whipped around to face Ignotus who looked just as angry as I did.

"What is your problem!? I am trying to help us get back into the world and you are not helping! You do understand that these people could lock us back in a cell like Hydra did, don't you?!" I practically yelled at Ignotus, striding up to stand in front of him.

"Oh do not give me that swindle, you and I both know that we could get out of this place with a flick of our wrists, you just don't want to kill them." Ignotus replied with an evil grin on his face.

"You're right, I don't want to kill them, whether they meant to or not they freed us from that godawful cell in the first place. We owe them our lives, so I will make sure not to end theirs." I now stood looking up at his slightly taller frame, narrowing my eyes in a look I hope got across just how annoyed I was.

"You have become weak. That time locked away has weakened you" Ignotus said with a sneer, grabbing my wrist and raising it up to his eye level.

"Do not forget that I am the reason you are alive, I am the reason you have these powers, you owe everything to me." I snatched my hand back and took a step away from Ignotus.

"You don't think I know that? Of course I do! But there is nothing you can do about that now. We are bound together now, by your own stupidity." When I said that Ignotus quickly sped towards and pressed his face only a few centimetres away from mine.

"Fine, have your fun, play with the mortals and watch them die, just like everyone else. When you have had your fun, we are going away from here, and you are not going to complain."

"Deal" with that last word I thrust my hand out into the centre of Ignotus' chest and felt as he receded inside back into my mind and body.

The pain I felt was well worth getting him to shut up, so plastering the smile back on my face, I walked out of the room and rounded the corner where I had seen the other go.

Sure enough they all stood in various positions, either leaning against the wall or painterly standing, waiting for me to show up.

"Good you're here" said Steve, walking up to me and standing a few feet away, his hands held in his belt.

"Yes finally, now let's go introduce her to the others and see what weird sorta stuff she can do." Said Tony as he began to walk away from the group down the hallway.

"Others? I remember there being a few more of you, but how many more?" I asked Steve looking up at him, why is everyone taller than me.

"Come with us and you'll find out" came the voice of Pietro as he suddenly vanished into a blur or silver and blue before the Captain could say anything.

"What he said" was the only thing Steve said before he gestured for me to follow him and began walking down the hallway in the same direction Tony had gone.

With a deep sigh I quickly followed after Steve down the corridor, when I heard someone next to me.

"Do not worry, I will make sure that the others do not think the worst of you, I know that you are a good person." Came the voice of Wanda next to me.

"How can you know for certain" was my response, never taking my eyes off of what was in front of me.

"I like to think I'm a good judge of character" she said before she went silent and we both walked after Stevens broad frame together.

"I hope you are too" I whispered quietly under my breath, looking down at my hands before focusing back on the quickly approaching doors in front of us.

I hope you are.


	6. 6

As we were slowly but surely approaching the door, Steve suddenly put his arm out in a universal sign to stop.

He turned around to face Wanda and me, as Tony and Pietro were already waiting by the door.

"Ok, before you go in, I want you to know beforehand that almost everyone in that room considers you a hostile threat" said the Captain, levelling me with his steely gaze.

"You speak as if that would bother me, I have faced far more dangerous foes than your gallivanting group riffraff's." I said in a cool tone in response, looking around the hallway of riffraff's who all looked slightly offended.

"You don't scare me" I finished turning to face Steve again, my hands clasped neatly behind my ramrod straight back.

A silence settled over the hallway, I imagine that the rest of the group were re-evaluating what I had just said, likely making connections between my long life and the amount of fighting and pain I had seen first-hand.

"I say we throw her in there and lock the door" came Tony's condescending and sarcastic tone, breaking through the reverent silence that had consumed the small hall.

"Tony! You know if we can't do that!" Steve immediately yelled at the billionaire’s plan.

Tony turned from staring at the door in front of us to glare down at me, as if my presence had personally offended him.

"Why not Boy Scout? This will give us a chance to see how quick her regeneration skills are. I mean the team is gonna rip her a new one for damaging your pretty face." Replied Tony, gesturing his hand up to encompass the Captains busted nose and slightly blackened eyes.

"Ah yes, but I do believe I apologised for that, just because the rest of your comrades were not in the room to hear it, does not mean that the apology was rendered moot." I said in a very matter of fact tone.

It was very fun to show up Tony, he acts so high and mighty, but as soon as someone with reasonable intelligence and quick wit comes along, he's made to look the fool.

From the few minutes I've known him, I imagine that Tony hasn't been shown up many times, and when it does happen, he throws a tantrum.

Like he's doing right now.

Tony was looking at me like I had just stolen his first born child, and he had a snarl on his face to bring together the whole sour ensemble.

"However If you would like me to repeat my apology in front of the rest of your group, to ensure my safety and well-being, I'm sure that's something I can do." I brought my arms up to cross in front of my chest, displaying an air of cool indifference, although on the inside I was practically boiling with rage.

How dare they ask me to apologise not once, but twice! I could kill them all in a second with a snap of my fingers, and it wouldn't inconvenience me in the slightest.

They think they are better than me, better than us. We are a god compared to these weak mortals.

Kill them.

Prove to them that you are better.

Shut up! I have already told you that we are not to kill them! Why can't you just listen to me!?

I was snapped out of my argument with Ignotus by a delicate hand being placed on my shoulder.

I quickly snapped my head to the left to see Wanda looking at me with concern, her other handheld on top of my hand closest to her.

I looked down to my crossed arms to see that whilst arguing with Ignotus, my nails had bitten into the flesh of my upper arms and were leaking blood.

I slowly withdrew my nails and uncrossed my arms, leaving the blood to run down my arm in small rivers until they reached my fingertips.

Pietro rushed over to his sister in a blur and grabbed her by the biceps, gently pulling her away from me to stand a few paces back.

"I apologise" I said making eye contact with everyone, "my mind was somewhere else."

Pietro and Wanda began to silently whisper between each other again as Pietro continued to try and drag Wanda away, although she appears to be putting up a bit of a fight about it.

Tony exchanged a look with Steve, a silent conversation I would never be able to understand, though I can assume that they were questioning whether they should have put me in handcuffs.

Tony began to walk up to me with a sure and determined stride, never taking his eyes off of mine as he reached his arm out to grab mine to observe the cuts.

I quickly drew back, and simply extended my arm out so it was out of his reach, but also so that he could see as the small cuts began to slowly heal up before his eyes.

"Is this proof enough of my regeneration?" I asked putting my arms back by my side once the cuts had fully healed, which only took a few seconds due to how small they were.

Tony turned his back on me to look at the Captain, "Bruce and I have to run some test on her, she could be a step to recreating the super soldier serum."

Steve advanced on Tony, bringing his hand up in a dismissive gesture.

"Tony no, you and I both know that only bad things happen when anyone tries to recreate the serum, even you." Steve crossed his arms in front of his chest, still covered in his uniform.

"Hey, come on Capsicle, don't you trust me?" Tony sarcastic grin seemed to be his main facial expression, as that was the main one, I had seen since meeting him.

"He may trust you, but I certainly don't" I quickly inputted, turning everyone's attention to me as I levelled Tony with an evil look.

"Listen here Brit, you're still alive because we didn't kill ya, you should be grateful to us for lettin' you outa that Hydra base." I could tell Tony was becoming aggravated by the rhythmic clenching and unclenching of his jaw.

"No, the reason I'm still alive is because you can't kill me. I could snap by fingers and you would all burst into flames, with nothing but your ashes left." I raised my hand in front of Tony's face and prepared my fingers to snap.

"Enough!" Came Steve's loud response, walking up to us and pushing Tony back slightly by the shoulder, and standing between us.

"There will be no experimentation. Is that understood?" Asked Steve turning to face Tony, who gave an eye roll and a small nod.

Steve turned to me with an expectant look, to which I gave a curt nod and meaningful look, conveying my agreement.

"We are going to go meet the rest of the team, and you two are going to behave. You've known each other for less than an hour and you've already threatened to kill each other." Said Steve giving us both disapproving looks.

"Actually, I didn't threaten to kill him, I simply told him that I could do it easily." I said raising one of my eyebrows, tilting my head slightly to the side.

"Yeah I didn't threaten to kill her either, I just want to see what makes her tick" replied Tony, looking my up and down with his eyes in a way that the scientists at Hydra did.

"Enough squabbling, we are to meet the rest of the team before sundown yes?" Came Pietro's voice, speaking up for the first time since entering the corridor.

Steve, Tony, and I all turned to face him and Wanda, who were standing off to the side of our group, looking at us disapprovingly.

"Yes I do believe we were" I said giving a small smile to Pietro and Wanda and turning once again to face Steve, gesturing my hand to the double doors which we had slowly moved away from.

"Yes, right" said Steve, striding over to the doors and opening them wide for everyone to see.

Inside was what appeared to be a common area, larger than any other room I had ever seen.

In one corner was a kitchen area, with sleek black counters and large appliances which looked to be from an alien planet rather than a shop downtown.

In the centre of the room, was a large seating area, filled with sofas and a coffee table which appeared to be sunk into the floor like some sort of pit.

One wall in front of us was made completely of glass, giving a beautiful view of the cityscape, I assume we were in some sort of skyscraper as we were very high up.

Quickly taking in the basics of the room, I turned my attention to the room's inhabitants who were currently seated in the living room, pit area.

I recognised a few of the people from the Hydra base, others however were completely new to me, and I can assume that none of them were too pleased to see me as they all wore looks of distrust and wariness.

I recognised the only women in the room first, her striking red hair instantly reminded me of the woman who held a gun to my head at the Hydra faculty.

She seemed well trained then, and what I saw now continued to prove so, because as soon as Steve opened the door, she had her hand on her gun which rested on her hip.

Her whole body was tense as she sat on the sofa and ready for anything, most likely imagining all of the possible moves I could do to try and escape this situation.

I think she will be one of the hardest to convince about my trustworthiness.

The second one I recognised was the man with the hammer in a long flowing cape who stood next to the sofas, his back originally turned to look out at the city before he heard the door open.

He stood with tall and proud, with long flowing blond hair and his hammer slightly raised in a threatening manner toward me, his face set in a hard frown.

One man, or at least I think it's a man, I didn't recognise sat next to the woman, his skin a combination of red and silver metal, with a large yellow gem sitting in the centre of his forehead.

I have no idea what on earth he...it is, but he was defiantly the one who looked the least angry at my presence, as he wore an expressionless look on his face, which made him seem slightly more approachable.

Slightly.

As Steve and Tony walked into the room, I noticed that the twins remained behind me, no doubt to make sure that I didn't try to run away or anything similar.

All eye instantly went to Steve, which proved my earlier theory that he is the leader of this band of merry makers, as I slowly made my way into the room, keeping my arms neutrally by my side to try and appear as non-threatening as possible.

"Avengers, listen up." Said Steve, his hands resting on his belt buckle, making him look even more like a leader than he already did.

"Aries is not a threat, we have established that." Steve gestured his hands up at me when he said my name, as the rest of the team, or Avengers, didn't know that.

Who names a team 'The Avengers' anyway? Stupid name.

I may not be a threat to you at the moment, but if they make a move I don't agree with, I will become a very real threat to them.

"How can you know that?" Said the red headed woman, "Wanda can't read her mind, she could be saying anything to get out of this" she continued looking at my neutral expression with distain.

"Yes brother, how can we be sure she is not deceiving us" came the loud booming voice of the man in the cape, his accent once again something unfamiliar.

"Thor, Natasha, when have I ever misled you?" Questioned Steve, revealing both of their names in the process, now the only name I did not know was the strange man who had remained quiet the whole time, choosing instead to look at my intently.

His intense gaze unnerved me, there was something strikingly inhuman about it, and it set my teeth on edge and made my skin crawl, I wonder what he was seeing about me?

"It's not that we don't trust you, it's that we don't trust her" replied Natasha, keeping her hand on her gun, constantly keeping her eyes on me.

I slowly began to smile at Natasha, growing until it was a face splitting grin, to which she looked disturbed and wary.

"Perhaps it would help if I told my life's story once again?" I questioned turning to face Steve with the same disturbing and sarcastic smile.

Steve looked down at me with a small smile, "yes maybe that will help to ease their suspicions" he said calmly.

"Alright then, you might all want to take a seat, this is a long, long story" I said, gesturing to the sofa with an all-knowing smile.


	7. 7

"And here we are now" I finished with a flourish, waving my hand around to encompass the inhabitants of the room in a condescending manner, pushing my long and scraggly hair behind my ear.

Everyone else all looked around at each other, slowly digesting the much shortened version of my life story and how I came to be sitting in what appeared to be their very large living room.

The silence in the room broke as Natasha stood up and crossed her arms "how can we believe anything you say? You could have gotten that scar any number of ways and you have no proof of this 'Ignotus' creature" She said looking down at me with a deep scowl on her face, as her lips pursed slightly in suspicion.

I saw Steve go to open his mouth, most likely going to say that he had seen Ignotus himself back in the Hydra base, but I quickly looked and gave him a look that told him to keep his mouth shut.

"Would you like some form of proof?" I asked looking around and making eye contact with everyone in the room, including them in my question.

Once again everyone exchanged wary glances, darting their eyes back and forth between Natasha and myself, probably gauging if anyone needed to step in and break up our glaring contest.

"Perhaps some form of confirmation would be helpful in easing the current tension" came an almost metallic voice from the man with red and golden skin.

I cast my eyes over to him and stared him down, trying again to figure out what about him made me so uneasy and wary.

Flitting my eyes around the room a final time I gave a deep sigh and rose from my current seated position on a small comfortable armchair facing the long plush couch that everyone else has either been sitting on or hovering around.

"Alright then, unfortunately Ignotus is unavailable at the moment so-"

"What do you mean unavailable?" Natasha interrupted, "didn't you say that you two were bound together or something like that?"

I slowly turned my head to look at her, a condescending grin spreading across my face.

"And I believe I also said that when Ignotus uses too much energy, he retreats into my subconscious to rest. Killing all of those Hydra agents was enough to weaken him, so instead of interrupting me, perhaps you should remember that I am far older and wiser than you will ever be." My smile slowly faded away into a blank expression as I looked at everyone in the room.

"Now as I was saying, as Ignotus is unavailable, I will instead exhibit my regenerate powers." I began to walk over to the wall next to the double doors we came in through.

"And to show this" I turned around to face everyone slowly with a calm and small smile, pushing my hair behind my shoulders slowly, "I will need Natasha to shoot me."

"What!" Came at least two different voices in outrage, whereas Natasha slowly took out her gun and held it tightly between her hands in front of her.

"This demonstration can end one of two ways." I spoke loudly over the rooms protests, "I will either die, and you will know my story was false, or I will live, and you will have no other choice then to believe me."

I placed my arms behind my back slowly, hands clasped tightly around each other over the small of my back and smiled over at Natasha.

"Now if you would kindly shoot me in the middle of my chest, between my ribs of course, if you were to shoot me in a lung or my heart it would take a lot longer to heal."

Tony's voice broke through the tense and astonished air with a cry of outrage, "does no one care that my walls are going to be covered in blood?! Do you know how hard it is to get blood out of a white wall? Because I don't, but I bet it's very, very hard."

I rolled my eyes and looked at Tony's annoyed face, "Tony, if Natasha shoots in the correct place, than the bullet should get lodged in the muscle in my upper back, or perhaps hit my spinal column, either way, there isn't going to be an exit wound, and therefore no blood on your pristine white wall."

"It sounds like you have been injured many times, in one of our past lives were you a warrior of sorts?" Came the booming voice of Thor, this time though his seemed more curious than distrustful.

"Unfortunately, when you have lived as long as I have with the burden I bear, many people will seek to harm me, simply because they want to live forever." I gave a sad smile to the large man and saw him give a look of sympathy and understanding before I turned away.

"Now, let's get this over with, yes?" I squared my shoulders and put on a neutral expression, looking Natasha straight in the eye.

Wanda went to protest again but before she could, Natasha had raised her gun, aimed, and shot.

I stumbled back from the impact, as everyone else jumped from the loud, unexpected bang that came from the gun.

I looked down at my chest to see a growing pool of blood, and the slowly blooming, hot agony that always came when I was shot.

I looked up meeting Natasha eyes as she still looked over her gun, "you were 2 centimetres off" I choked out as I brought my right hand up to press on the wound that had clipped one of my rips.

I slowly hunched over putting my left hand on my knee to steady myself as the burning fire that consumed my chest slowly began to recede, already preparing to show the room what I would do with the bullet.

"Now, you're probably all wondering why I wanted there to be no exit wound" I heaved out as I straightened myself and pulled down the neck of the hospital gown I was in to show the gaping hole in my chest.

The room shared a stunned silence as they observed my skin as it finished knitting itself back together, smoothing over until no mark remained.

Over the years my regenerative abilities have learned to speed up, so a knife would will take seconds, but with the undoubtedly vast technological advancements, I wonder if there will be any new forms of weapons that my body will have to adapt too.

I can already tell that their guns have significantly improved due to the speed of the bullet and the newfound pain that wasn't there when I was shot almost 70 years ago.

"I thought it was because you didn't want blood on Starks walls" said Wanda her body slightly turned towards her brother, who sat next to her on the sofa.

"Partially" I responded, hearing said Stark give an indignant huff at my words, "but also to display what I can do with the metal."

"You were the ones to get me out of that Hydra base, though I imagine it wasn't something you particularly wanted to do, so I believe I owe you some level of honesty"

I brought my blood stained hand away from my chest and wiped it on the bottom of the bright white gown, watching as the blood stained it a deep and disturbing red.

"Because my core temperature is over one thousand degrees centigrade, and before you ask, I am able to maintain that heat through the use of Ignotus and my ability to constantly regenerate." I quickly added as I saw both Steve and Tony opening their mouths to most likely deny that ability.

"As I was saying, the metal is heated until it becomes a liquid, and runs through my veins until I use it, but because having molten metal running through your veins is unbearably painful, I do this"

I quickly flicked my wrist down and felt the pin pricks of pain as the metal passed through my veins and out of my pores, manipulating it to form a small long shard the length of my forearm.

"Whoa now" I quickly dropped the newly formed dagger, hearing it clatter onto the hard wood floor as Natasha once again raised her gun to me at the sight of my weapon.

"Soooooo what? You're like a human furnace or something? You melt metal inside your 'core' or whatever? I find that highly unlikely" said Tony crossing his arms and walking up to me, staring me down whilst invading my personal space.

"Of all the things I have displayed, the countless tales I have told, you doubt my ability to have an above average core temperature, even though I have an immortal fire creature residing inside of my head? If you are what's called a genius in this time, then the standard for intellect has certainly fallen." After my long speech I gave a small smile and walked around Tony, brushing his shoulder slightly as I went to sit down in the previous armchair, I was sitting in.

I looked over to Wanda, gauging her reaction to my outburst and my display.

Wanda was currently whispering into Pietro's ear with a look of sadness, as Pietro was clenching his fist in an act of aggression.

The two opposite reactions struck me as odd, although I had known the twins for a short period, I can already tell that they are very close and share many thoughts and opinions with each other.

I looked out the large windows to the cityscape, reflecting on what is to come and how I was going to find a safe place for Carla and Tommy.

I'm surprised that Ignotus didn't mention them when I was in the hospital room, although I imagine when I release him again he will say that they are restless and want to be allowed out soon, but it's not safe yet.

I heard movement and turned my head to see that most of the 'Avengers' had gathered in the corner of the room, probably discussing what to do with me, but Wanda and Pietro had stayed seated on the sofa looking at me.

"You...you were in that place for 70 years" Wanda whispered looking at me with small tears gathering in her eyes.

"How did you survive? I know that you could have survived psychically but, how are you fine with it? You act as if nothing happened." Pietro leaned forward slightly, waiting for my answer.

I edges forward on the small armchair, "when you have lived as long as I have, you experience a lot, most of which is not good" I looked up, flicking my eyes between the two.

"Aries" Steve called out to me from the other side of the room, "if you come with me, I'll escort you to your temporary room"

"My room?" I stood up slowly walking over the group who hadn't moved in the corner of the room.

"Yes we have decided to let you stay in the Avengers headquarters until further notice." Steve responded ushering me out of the double doors and down a long corridor.

I walked briskly after Steve, rounding a corner, and stopped in front of a large oak door, where Steve turned to face me, crossing his arms, and looking down at me.

"I told the others that they can trust you, don't make me regret my choice." I crossed my arms as well, tilting my head back slightly to look him the eye, damn he's tall.

"And why would you do that? Put yourself on the line to help someone who punched you in the face the first time we met?"

"Because I believe we can trust you Aries, I'll leave you to get some rest." Steve turned his back and walked back up the hall to the common room, leaving me alone in the hall looking after him.

I turned back to the door and threw it open, closing it behind me with my foot as I rushed through the room, not taking any of it in.

I quickly fell onto the bed and closed my eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep with the soft covers underneath.

I didn't even bother to think about the blood that was undoubtedly staining the sheets before I was already in a deep asleep, unaware of the rage boiling inside of my mind from Ignotus.


	8. 8

'Stupid.

Stupid.

Stupid girl.

Always trusting people she doesn't understand.

Always trusting and never learning.

All you need is me.

All you'll ever need is me.

Wake up.

WAKE UP.'

"Ahh!" I shouted, sitting up straight in my new bed, covered in sweat, and feeling more tired than I did before I went to sleep.

Although I suppose that's how I always wake up, being on all of the drugs at the Hydra base would send me in to mini comas rather than to sleep, so I haven't had to experience this for some time.

I looked over to the window and saw that it was still daylight outside, I then looked over to my bedside table to see a clock which showed that I had only been asleep for a couple of hours.

Great, now I have to get up and talk to them, what questions are they going to bombarded me with this time?

I need to find out why they want me here, and if I will need to find a way of this base without them knowing for the future.

I shuffled to the edge of the bed and stood up slowly, feeling my back and legs click and crack together.

Stretching my arms above my head I stumbled towards one of the multiple doors attached to the large bedroom, and opened it cautiously, better safe than sorry in a foreign room in a strange building.

Inside was a bright white room with a sink and shower, bath, and another shallower square tub with built in seats on either side. Not too sure what that is.

I made my way over to the large mirror above the sink and pushed my matted and unkempt hair away from my face. Its length fell to around my arse and laid in a scraggly mess of dirt, blood, and knots.

I huffed a breath and avoided meeting my reflections eye, as I squatted down to rummage through the cabinet under the sink. I frowned slightly to see that it was mainly empty except for a few essentials like shampoo and conditioner, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a small sewing kit.

I reached out and grabbed the sewing kit and looked through the see-through case to see what I had been looking for. I gave a little smile of accomplishment as I pulled out the small pair of scissors used for cutting away stray threads on clothing.

I held the scissors in my right hand and looked at myself in the mirror again, raising my left to hold my hair in a high ponytail at the top of my head.

Giving I sigh I began the long work of cutting off my hair to an acceptable length with the tiny scissors, watching as the small clumps fell to the bright white floor.

It took about 5 minutes of continuous cutting for the last strand of long hair to fall away, as I lowered my left hand to let my hair fall to just above my chin in a choppy and uneven cut.

Oh well, it's not like it mattered. It's more for convenience and added movement which long hair wouldn't allow me.

Bending over the sink I turned on the tap and splashed a handful of cold water on my face and then grabbed some more and ran it through my hair, trying to wash out the dried blood and loosen some of the many knots scattered throughout what little of my hair remained.

Turning slightly I reached to the side and pulled one of the folded towels off of the countertop and roughly dried my face and hair. With my hair now manageable I rummaged through some of the drawers looking for a comb or brush, anything to combat the nest which was residing on my head.

Coming up with nothing I reached back down into the draws, pulling out the small toothbrush and toothpaste and began quickly brushing my teeth. I ran a hand through my hair, tousling it slightly out of my face and pushing it behind my ears.

It didn't have to look nice, it's not as if I was trying to impress them.

Going back outside I realised I was still in my bloodied hospital gown which had a nice round hole in the centre of my chest from the bullet. Another deep huff left my lips as I scoured the room for something that was at least clean.

Walking over to the large chest of drawers pressed into the corner of the bedroom, I opened the top left draw to find it full of socks and various undergarments.

Casting a wary eye at some of the more bright garments I settled for a pair of black socks and black underwear, slipping them on quickly underneath my ruined gown, discarding the older pair into the small rubbish bin in the opposite corner of the room.

Reaching further down to open the second draw, I found it filled with various shirts of different materials, colours and... Umm...decency.

I plucked the first shirt of the top of the folded pile and held it away from me to examine.

It was a disgustingly bright yellow colour with short sleeves and various flowers in different colours printed all over the gauzy fabric.

Lifting my upper lip in a sneer I quickly threw the shirt into the rubbish bin as well.

Wearing that shirt is its own form of torture.

Casting another glance into the draw I pulled out a dark blue shirt without any sleeves and only thin straps to hold it up.

The material was relatively soft with small dots of black towards the bottom of the shirt, changing the colour to black.

I suppose I'm not going to find anything with better coverage in there.

Giving a sigh I quickly began undoing the ties at the back of the gown, however as I got higher it grew harder and harder to reach the ties.

Lowering my arms in a deferred manner I considered my option, I could burn it off, but I imagine that wouldn't be well received. I could simply continue wearing it, but that option was equally unlikely, I wanted to wear something other than hospital garb.

Before I could think of another option a sharp pain radiated from my hand and was suddenly gone, leaving me with a very unimpressed Ignotus who had his arms crossed glaring down at me.

"What are you doing? I thought we talked about you just appearing?" I questioned, mimicking his pose, and crossing my arms.

"Carla and Tommy are restless, they want to leave, if only for a moment." He said turning his back to me and crossing over the draw I was previously standing in front of, giving it the same sneer I did.

"You know I can't let them out yet, it's not safe for them. Besides when have you ever cared if they were restless?" I walked over to him, taking the garment he was holding in his hands and quickly set it back in the draw before he decided to set it on fire.

"I care when they're whining disturbs my peace, they're insufferable when they're like that."

"Well you can tell them that they will have to wait until I can guarantee their safety."

I turned to me with a look that said a thousand words "I'm not going back; you'll just have to wait to tell your precious creations that they will be imprisoned forever." Ignotus turned and used his fingers to pluck a strand of hair from my face, "this is better," he said giving the stand a quick tug before releasing it.

An indignant huff left my lips "they won't be stuck forever, just for now, this place is new, and I must first understand this world, so I am able to protect them from it. And yes I just cut it." Turning my back to Ignotus I turned my head, "can you undo the ties, my arms can reach them."

"Why not simply burn them?" He asked coming to stand behind me and beginning to undo the few ties left.

"Because we are trying to get them to trust us, and I suspect that setting fires left, right and centre will not get them to trust us." I said with a condescending tone and a flourish of my hands before I refolded them over my chest.

I felt the last tie give as the garment opened revealing my back and some scars which will heal soon enough from the most recent experiments.

I suppose it’s 'last' experiments now.

Walking over the draws again I uncrossed my arms and let the gown fall from my frame and picked up the blue shirt, throwing it over my head and pulling it down to rest at my hips.

"Perhaps we should be considering staying here, of course only while whilst we learn about this new world we've awoken to" I spoke over my shoulder as I went to the second lowest draw and pulled it open.

Inside it was pairs of folded trousers which I quickly pulled out and pressed to my frame to get an estimate of the size.

"Are you mad? Has the years of turmoil finally rendered you a simpleton?" Ignotus exclaimed. "We cannot stay here! We must leave before they decide to pick up where that foolish band of scientists left off!"

After pulling on a pair of black trousers which fit me well enough, I whipped round to stand in front of Ignotus.

"I've had just about enough of you! You don't seem to grasp the situation we are in here! We are 70 years out of time in a world we don't know anything about. How do you except us to blend in out there, or even survive? This isn't the same as skipping 5 or 10 years, this is worse."

Taking a deep breath I took a step back "this is something we have to do; these people can help us teach us how to live in this time. As soon as we know what we need, we'll leave. All right?"

Ignotus gave a huff, crossing his arms and looking down at me "as you wish" he said in a condescending tone which reflected anything but sincerity.

"Good now let's go have you greet our new house guests, shall we?" I asked with a saccharine smile and a slight bow as my hands extended towards the large door which led to the hallway.

When Ignotus refused to move I straightened myself and gave a small eye roll whilst walking to the door muttering a quiet "child" under my breath which I have no doubt that Ignotus heard but didn't comment on.


End file.
